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FEATURES: TREK WORLD 2009, PART ONE
Zap
August 14, 2008
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Wisconsin Pride & Joy
(That no good) Brett Favre may have moved on from Wisconsin but over three decades after it was founded on the outskirts of the small farm town of Waterloo, Trek Bicycles proved this week that not only are they bigger and better than ever, but that they are also continuing to invest additional resources into the company's mid-west base. That's a message that not only the state likes to hear, but from the response of their dealers who flocked to Wisco for the annual Trek World dealer show, a good thing as they try to differentiate the Trek brand from all the rest. As one dealer said, " I know all the lower end bike production has moved to Asia, but for the higher-end customer out there, a lot of them respond to the fact that Trek's OCLV Carbon bikes are still handmade in America." In the last year Trek has not only been on a hiring binge by bringing in new designers and engineers, but they have also continued to add to and modernize the the Waterloo facility.
At this years Trek World, there were four big news items that hung in the air at when Trek president John Burke took to the stage to give his annual state of the unionnnnn address.
1.
Earlier this year John's father Dick, who co-founded the company in 1976, passed away. While JB had assumed ownership of the brand years ago, his father still loomed large, not only at Trek, but in the industry at large for the dealer relationships that he saw as key to the success of the family business. John gave a stirring speech dedicated to his dad and reminded everyone that before he passed Dick had foretold that the next ten years of Trek's business would be more exciting than the previous thirty. Before the show opened they broke out some cases of "The Big Guy's" beer and everyone toasted to a champion of the industry.Godspeed Dick Burke.
2.
Greg who? For the last ten yers or so Trek had been partners with three time Tour De France winner Greg LeMond in producing the LeMond bike line. A nasty spat evolved during the last year with lawsuits and countersuits between them. Trek is no longer producing the LeMond bikes.
3.
After a similarily long relationship, Trek also gave up the licensing deal to market the Nike brand of cycling gear after the Swoosh company seemed to lose interest in the category - again.
4. From # 2 and # 3 came the big news # 4....first to make up for losing the LeMond brand, Trek introduced a new (and small) line of Gary Fisher road bikes. And to make up for losing Nike they introduced an expansive line of Bontrager shoes and clothing to compliment the expansive line of Bontrager components that have already served gthem well. While there are still plenty of questions on the market viability of both of these directions, Trek retains some of the highest brand equity in the sport and from the seeds that Dick Burke first began to spread back in 1976, the dealers know that Trek has no aversion to clearing whatever hurdles approach.
With all that as a primer, here's some of the cool bikes and products that Trek was showing off to their dealers. Look for a more to come in the following days.
The Trek World show took place in two places. The indoors part is found at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Menona Terrace convention center that sits lakeside in the shadow of the state Capital. Beautiful.
This is the view of the entry into the convention hall. Since Trek doesn't attend the Interbike show in Las Vegas, this is the one opportunity for all their dealers to check out the complete line of Trek family products.
Once you entered the main hall there were two bikes that seemed to catch everyone's attention. The first was the bike Trek made up to celebrate Alberto Contador's win at the Giro d' Italia. Wait, you're saying you never saw Contador ride the bike in the Giro? For the exclusive inside story, be sure to check back soon.
One of the bikes that was getting a lot of attention was the new Trek District city bike. Although Trek doesn't intend to sell a lot of these, it is another example of how the culture has evolved at Trek so that odd, sub-cult type bikes can make it through the corporate channels to reach the dealer. The District is a clear reflection of the creative bike culture that is found throughout the company.
Here's what the District looked like in prototype form when it first came out of Trek's Advanced Concpet Group. This version was deemed a bit too radical.
Key to the District's novel design is the belt drive transmission. There is also a Soho city bike in the Trek line that uses a belt drive.
From the shapely handlebars and head tube to the orange deep section rims, carbon fork and orange details throughout, the District has a lot going on for itself. The retail price is $850 and it's available in five sizes.
The fabled OCLV Carbon TTX Tri/TT bike is available at four different price points ($3299-$8579). For aluminum fans, there's also the entry level Equinox 7 that sells for $2090. Look for Team Astana to be aborad their TTX bikes in the upcoming Vuelta de Espana and Chris Lieto rocking his K-Swiss backed TTX at the Ironman in October.
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